The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-12
FISHERMEN'S WIVES.

eff there was ever blighted race of
women" said a gentlemen, who recently
returned from visit to Cape Cod, to re-
porter for the New York Nail and E5c- |
press, "it exists in the penineular vii
lagos OF Massachusetts, which depend
upon the fisheries for the support of
their inhabitants. Nowhere else in New
England will one ever see go high an
average of female beauty, especially in
symmetry of form and freshness of COM
plexion; but it will not take one long to
discover that this girlish beauty and
freshness, while unusual and unexpected,
is also in its duration very brief. The
change produced in these girls by the
lapse of a few years is painful to observe.
No matronly graces are to be seen among
them after the girlhood days are past
The charming middle stage of maturing
womanhood, between the freshness and
buoyancy of the girl OF twenty and the
woman OF thirty-five or forty, is entirely
absent. The heightened color Of the
cheeks is gone. The eyes are sunken,
and wear constant look of sadness and
anxiety. Gray hair in heads over which
score and half Of years have scarcely
passed, and deep lines in faces which
should show no trace of age for years to
come, are rather the rule than the excep-
ton. These women, besides suffering
from all the inevitable sorrows which fall
to woman's lot, no matter in what station
she may be placed, have an added intense
and perpetual sorrow all their own.
| Theirs is life of continual suspense and
anxiety, which is almost certain in time
J to be embittered by an overwhelming
grief.
"The most obtuse observer need not
ask the cause of this lack of complete
matronly beauty among these women,
whose budding days open with the great
est promise of superb physical woman
hood. The cause suggests itself at once
to one who sees the congregations of wo-
men on the beaches and in the quiet
streets Of the sleepy villages. He will
notice occasionally feeble old man
among them. generally supported on the
arm of some female companion, who,
most likely, carries on her arm chubby
faced child of lusty lungs. But in these
| groups, or anywhere around the village,
the observer will look in vain for the
presence OF males between the lettering
years of these relics of the pact and the
prattling days of babyhood. 1t is the
fishing season, and there are no men or
boys on shore. Their smacks are toss
ing on the treacherous waters of the
fishing. banks, and their return, if they
weather, which has formed the one great
subject of conjecture and apprehension
among the villagers. Husbands, sons,
fathers, brothers and sweethearts are
somewhere out on the bosom of the sea,
probably homeward bound, perhaps steer
ing for still more distant waters, perhaps
struggling for life among the waves.
Fair weather keeps hope warm in many
an anxious woman's heart; the bowling
northeastern fills it with doubt and de-
spair. Constantly watching by day,
waking in the night to listen to sounds
from the sec, whether they may be the
roaring of the dreaded tempest or merely
the moan of the surf on the beach, is it
any wonder that the torture of mind and
| baurt md Tho strain of parva md yitoI
force that must follow the perpetual sus-
pense and longing destroy the fountains
of youth and beauty in these patient,
suffering women, and place upon them
the marks of age while they are yet
young?"